Lopresti went on to say that in many instances “the same ballot can be run through the same machine multiple times and the machine may produce different results”. Which of course is a deal breaker when considering the importance of its mission in counting the vote. Professor Lopresti continued the discussion about central counting with, “Studies show that the rate of under voting is higher with central counting versus precinct counts”. As of way of providing some meaningful historical examples of how optically read paper has produced erroneous results he talked of the SAT scandal. “Four thousand SAT test were scanned incorrectly, and since the results are public, the problem was quickly revealed”, however, “this would not be the case with the vote”! As a basic procedural rule, he said that “Every election that uses electronic voting technologies should have a random hand counted audit”. This is so obvious that you would think that even an elections bureaucrat could see it…random audits are pivotal to election integrity.
When asked my Ms. Gould about the near term future of Pennsylvania Professor Lopresti was less than enthusiastic, “Pennsylvania is in a very vulnerable position”. His final shared statement was that, “most studies show that paper ballots is a more secure way to go”. Let me guess, those studies that did not endorse paper ballots were underwritten by Diebold?
Following Professor Lopresti was Ohio voting integrity champions Paddy Shaffer, Director of the Ohio Election Justice Campaign and her compatriot fellow activist Marian Lupo. Having been on my broadcast not an hour earlier, Shaffer and Lupo were in a conversational radio mode when they spoke of how they viewed Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s responses to Mary Ann’s questions.
While they seemed encouraged and hopeful that Secretary Brunner will permit Ohio citizens to “monitor the count”, there was also a sense of powerlessness. This is because that they have requested meetings with Secretary Brunner since August of 2007 and have yet to been granted an audience. Paddy said, “to our great frustration this meeting has not happened”. The discussion moved on, and Marian Lupo said that “citizens need to have their own hearings on this”. Yes Marian, they do. Lets hope that any findings from a hearing will be LISTENED to by those elected officials that seem to suffer from selective deafness.
Finalizing the action packed hour was John Gideon with his weekly update on voting integrity happenings around the nation. He said that Colorado issued a report on December 17, that decertified a bunch of systems”. Which systems was not clear, but what is clear from his statement is that standardization is a concept not even being remotely explored by the machine minds. It is evidently so much fun to design democracy cancelling machines that the machine makers are immersed in a veritable orgy of redundant and meaningless engineering.
Most revealing was when Mary Ann asked John if he felt it was too late for 2008? John does “not envision changes for 2008”, but when pressed by Mary Ann about whether it was too late if enough people forced the issue, then John openly agreed that “anything can be accomplished if enough people get behind it”. He then followed with, “but to some extent people have gotten a little bit lazy since the Viet Nam era”. His sense of doom is shared by many casual observers. He said that he was asked recently by a reporter, “what do you see for 2012”?
Doing a post mortem of the broadcast is like opening up a shooting victim with eleven gun shot wounds in order to determine the cause of death. The reality of the voting integrity movement is that we are up against a political machine that is hell bent on having electronic voting technologies at the polls.
I want to remind everyone that these are the good old days. We are clearly doing battle against the forces of professional politicians and money driven businesses that have only one goal, climb the career ladder as easily as possible, and create corporate profits. Voting integrity is not a consideration with them.
Voting integrity is not easy. It is the hard work of the front line soldier. Activists walk point in a senseless war against democracies substrate. To those tireless front line warriors, my hat comes off.
This article and others by the author, as well as podcasts of past Voice of the Voters broadcasts are available on WWW.VoiceoftheVotersDOTCOM
Host of "American Voices" radio-Wednesdays 7-8PM Eastern & Co-Host of popular "Strait & Kall"radio programming- Thursdays 8-9PM Eastern, airing on WNJC1360 in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania radio market(live internet stream www.wnjc1360.com);
Frequent guest/co-host on "Voice of the Voters" radio.
Most importantly, a concerned and involved American.
Thanks for the update, but voter fraud here in the Buckeye State is as old as the state itself (1803). If my grandfather were still alive, (born 1894) he will tell you about went on here in Cincinnati & Hamilton County around election time from the early 20th century & even into the 1960's! The corruption, fraud & deceit was so prevalent that it was often taken for granted. Some of the stories, if this subject was not so serious, would be down right funny. One was to make opposition party voters cast their ballots in a horse barn full of manure. Many times they would have to climb up to the loft by rope to do so. Then a lot of ballot boxes mysteriously disappeared, never making it to the Board of Elections. No doubt, many destroyed or dumped into the Ohio River! Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same!
by
iman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 89 comments)
on Friday, December 21, 2007 at 8:36:02 PM
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